Is HP Repeating Nokia’s Mistake?

The Chromebook x2 seems to have a lot of potential, but there are some big questions — and not just about whether the hardware is as good as it looks. The real open question is whether Chrome OS is cut out to work on a tablet. Google has been overhauling the operating system to work better with touchscreens for a couple years now, but it’s still very much a desktop system. (It’s based on the Chrome desktop browser and its display of desktop websites, after all.) That’s likely to limit how useful it is, especially in comparison to an iPad, which was designed for touch from the ground up.

Wait, what? Is it 2018 or 2008? Ten years ago it was just starting to become clear that Nokia’s Symbian mobile operating system, a system designed to work with buttons that never made sense with touch screens, was going to get killed by the touchscreen-native iOS and Android. Fast forward 10 years and it looks like HP and Acer are doing the same thing by (mis)adapting Chrome. Why? And who is going to pay $600 for this? Especially when great Android tablets exist for around $500?